By Alexandra GloriosoSeptember 1, 2011Suburban New Jersey Teens hang out New York City. Bruce Springsteen is 18 in this photo and second from the right. Photo Courtesy of Wired New York (wirednewyork.com)

Until Fri., Sept 16: Live…Suburbia! Art Contest

On Fri., Sept. 23: Book release party and art exhibit featuring contest winners.

On Fri., Sept. 23, The powerHouse Arena will be hosting a book launch part and exhibition for Live…Suburbia! featuring a teen-dream themed installation of memorabilia and artifacts, live music, an iron-on T-shirt heat press, free drinks, and your artwork.

Teenagers were made to create anarchy. What evidence do you have of your youth spent destroying society and rebuilding it as you saw fit? Submit your Live…Suburbia! theme images for a chance to have your work incorporated into the exhibit at their launch party.

Twenty images will be selected to be printed out and displayed prominently at the event along with artistic credit. Three winners will also be selected to win prizes in addition to having their work displayed:

Second Runner-Up: Wins a signed copy of Live…Suburbia!

First Runner-Up: Wins a signed copy of Live…Suburbia! and a Limited Edition Live…Suburbia! Iron-on T-Shirt.

Grand Prize Winner; Wins a signed copy of Live…Suburbia! a Limited Edition Live…Suburbia! Iron-on T-Shirt, and a grand prize TBA.

Fri., Sept. 23: Book Launch Party. Live…Suburbia! is a collection of stories and images of the post-1960s subcultures that define America. It’s kids taking their urethane wheels to empty pools; picking British Punk in broad downstrokes and creating Hardcore. Live…Suburbia! is dedicated to denim devils twirling butterfly knives and hasty tags thrown down with Rust-Oleum touch-up paint stolen from your parents’ garage.

It is a compendium of home photographs of each and every subculture that rocked the suburbs from the 70s through the 90s, archiving the suburban decay that manifested itself in skateboarding, the KISS army, graffiti, skinheads, hardcore, punk, kung-fu, mall arcades, metal, BMX, drug abuse, and all the rest of the youth movements born from the raw, back-alley, suburban-basement energy that still simmers below the surface of idyllic American hamlets across the nation.

You’ve lived through the suburbs! Now let’s see your scars.

By participating in this contest you are consenting to have your work visible on Facebook, and reproduced for the purposes of exhibition at Live…Suburbia! related events. All work submitted must be the submitters own work, or they must have permission to use it as they see fit. powerHouse Books and Live…Suburbia! are not responsible for any work submitted and reproduced in violation of these rules.